Jennifer Harnish | Gazette FileEbony Gray, of Kalamazoo, goes through a run-through of her speech for the 2009 national Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO). She won a national ACT-SO gold medal in 2008.
Ebony Gray feels very strongly about teen abstinence — and she’s not afraid to tell anyone.

“I’m abstinent and it’s so easy for me to focus,” said the Loy Norrix High School senior.

“My friends who are having sex have a lot of emotional stress that I don’t worry about at all. I’m not afraid that I might be pregnant or that I might have a disease, and I’m not scared that any of that those things will happen to me — because I’m not having sex.”

Ebony slipped on her silver abstinence ring during an abstinence program at Mt. Zion Baptist Church at age 15, and her passion for what’s right and not right for teens, including abstinence, earned her a gold medal in 2008 in the national Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO).

Local Competition

WHAT: ACT-SO Youth Scholarship Program Competition.
WHERE: Kalamazoo Central High School Auditorium, 2432 N. Drake Road
WHEN: 1 to 4 p.m. April 17.
WINNERS: Will be announced at a banquet from 4 to 6 p.m. April 18 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, in Kalamazoo.
PRIZES: A panel of judges will select gold, silver and bronze medal winners from each of the categories, if they score high enough. Gold medalists will be awarded a trip to compete nationally in Kansas City, Mo., July 7-12. National gold medalists win $2,000 and a laptop computer.
MORE INFORMATION: (269) 343-4105 www.actsokazoo.org or www.naacp.org/youth/act-so.

“It made me feel so good about myself to win over 55 other people,” she said of the experience. “It gave me so much confidence. Before that, I didn’t have a lot, but I left there knowing that I’m just as good as anyone else.”

Since then, Ebony has presented her gold-medal speech, “The Things Teens Don’t Talk About,” several times, including to youth and adults at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

She advanced to nationals again in 2009, speaking against teen violence, but did not place in the competition, and she hasn’t decided yet if she will enter the 2010 local competition.

She and the rest of this year’s 25 program participants have until March 20 to apply. The mentors paired with the group include local actor and playwright Von H. Washington, coaching in the drama category, and local artist James Watkins as a visual arts mentor, said ACT-SO co-chair Bertha Barbee-McNeal.

“These groups of kids are usually the go-getters,” Barbee-McNeal said. “Almost all of them go on to college, and we’re very proud of that. “It’s a wonderful chance for them to show their talents.”

Ebony Gray will take the confidence boost she got from her ACT-SO gold medal and from subsequent speaking engagements into adulthood to use in her future career.

“I want to be a lawyer,” she said, “and lawyers have to know how to talk to people.”

So, what is ACT-SO?The Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics is a yearlong academic and cultural enrichment program for youth founded in 1977.

It begins each September with a mentoring program for black high school students who enter it through NAACP programs throughout the country.

The Metropolitan Kalamazoo Branch of the NAACP recruits students and sponsors the annual ACT-SO Youth Scholarship Program Competition.